Art’s Cyclery Blog

Sometimes I wish the cycling clothing companies would just stop making matching apparel sets. That may sound like an odd request but let me explain, because there’s a story that prompted this conviction. This morning I was flipped off on the freeway driving to work. One of those deals where you really didn’t realize you were slowing someone else down for so long. After tailgating me, the man pulled around me on the right, passed me just enough so that I couldn’t tell who he was and stuck his middle finger out the window. What impressed me the most was that it was raining outside, and I had gotten him so worked up that he saw fit to hold it there for almost a minute! Now as far as insults go, I would have to agree with Jerry Seinfeld and say that getting the toe would be much more of an insult than getting the finger. But this person did go through the trouble of getting his hand wet and leaving it outside for quite some time.Yesterday, I was reading another cycling blog and all these people were commenting on how if you wear white cycling shoes (or anything flashy), you automatically look like a d%#k.

What both events reminded me was that people care too much and are too uptight about stuff. I think roadies are generally too image conscious. The proof is that after ten comments, no one had yet said color shouldn’t matter. Apparently the wisdom of don’t judge a book by its cover is forgotten in cycling circles. I just don’t understand why people get so bent out of shape over nothing! White shoes, 10 seconds in the fast lane, it doesn’t matter what it is.

My point is this, if you want to wear white shoes, wear them proud. If you want to ride a fixie and wear tight pants, do it. We place too much importance on our image in this society, and even worse, we make character judgements based on it. If you want to wear the  red polka dot KOM full kit, go for it! Just promise me this, that you’ll enjoy it and not think twice about wearing it. Secondly, if you feel like commenting negatively on someone else’s apparel, get dressed up in your spandex and go ask a retail clerk of a high fashion store what they think of your outfit. We all look like goofballs out on the road so don’t think that just because you wear a black spandex kit that matches itself you somehow look good all of sudden. It doesn’t matter what you look like (as long as you’re descent of course), it only matters that you enjoy riding your bike. Lose sight of this and you’ve lost sight of what cycling’s all about.

Speaking of clothing, we have some incredible deals on last year’s summer apparel, now’s the time to get it so don’t miss out!

Hammer On

Bradstone General, Pleasures of Riding

As if you needed another reason to shop at artscyclery.com this holiday season, we are now offering free 2nd day air shipping on most orders over $150. Of course, we always provide free ground shipping on all orders over $50 as well, because we like you. Check out our great selection of gifts for the cyclists on your list, even if they happen to be you!

Luke General, Sales

This is an encouraging little editorial by Evan, our resident Triathlete. Before you read it, please understand that Evan is quite the triathlete, placing 3rd in his age group at the International Triathlon Union World Championships in Australia for the Sprint distance. No small feat. When he talks triathlon, we listen. Enjoy.

I need to make a request to my fellow triathletes. Please work on your cycling skills this off-season. This is for your own safety, but most importantly, my own. It’s no secret that triathletes are not the best cyclists in the world (this is called an understatement), and because of this, I encourage every triathlete to set a goal to improve your cycling skills as you train through the winter months.

I am an avid triathlete and cyclist. I’ve been racing competitively for over 10 years, but I wasn’t always a good rider. I got better because I sought the help of experienced cyclists, and I gradually improved over time until I was comfortable riding in any pack.  I want to dispel the stereotype that triathletes are horrible cyclists by sticking up for my multi-sport brethren at group rides when I hear the hard-core roadies snicker at the guy with aero bars who doesn’t wear socks with his tri-specific shoes to simulate race conditions.

But a few incidents lately have made me embarrassed for my own kind. I would rather keep it a secret that I’m a triathlete when riding in a pack of road racers.

Sometimes being well informed is better than having all the right gear

Every roadie will agree with me on this one. You would think that as the sport of triathlon has grown tremendously over the last few years, the collective level of cycling ability amongst triathletes would increase accordingly. I have seen little evidence of this.

I raced for the Cal Poly Triathlon Team back when I was in school, and I decided I would re-unite with them for a Saturday morning group ride. I love the Tri Team, and racing for Cal Poly was the best part of my collegiate experience. But this ride was sketchy at best, and flat-out dangerous at worst.

The pace was inconsistent while the pace line was choppy and disorganized. The coaches of this team must have made a very bold point of telling everyone to shout out objects in the road. Every single spec of dust on the road was loudly pronounced by whoever was pulling at the time.

I found this absolutely hilarious. I was riding at the front toward the end of the ride when the guy riding next to me shouted, “Gravel!” He took his hand off the bars to point out a few small pebbles in the road that posed no serious threat, almost swerving into me while unnecessarily startling the entire group.

I calmly explained that shouting out everything in the road is not a good idea, and if you used this tactic on a real group ride, you would get laughed at, mocked, and ridiculed while continuing to contribute to the negative stereotype that triathletes are clueless when it comes to pack riding.

So, for any triathletes still reading, here are a few tips to help your pack riding skills:
1.    If you come to a group ride, road bikes are preferred. Only elite-level triahletes have the competence to handle a tri bike on a group ride.
2.    Try to resist your triathlete instinct to be sketchy. Think about going straight, being calm and riding smoothly.
3.    If you don’t feel comfortable taking your hands off the bars, practice doing so.
4.    Observe what others are doing on group rides and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
5.    Put your helmet on the right way (See picture).

Hopefully I’ve raised some awareness and I’ll see some more competent triathletes out on the road. Post a comment if you have a question or would like to share your experiences. Good luck and happy training!

Just because we’ve talked about triathletes doesn’t mean we haven’t seen you Roadie-who-can’t-look-over-his-shoulder-without-swerving-into-the-road.  Has any one seen the Tour footage where Robbie McEwen bunny hopped a curb because the peloton had forced him onto the center divider?!  A little bike handling will get you out of most jams. Maybe do a Cyclocross race or some mountain biking this winter. Both these will force any rider to improve his/her handling skills and make them safer on the road.

Until next time,

Hammer On

Bradstone General, Road, Technique

If you’ve been paying any attention to our blog for the last month, you may have noticed that… there’s nothing to pay attention to. I apologize for this, but like cycling in general this time of year, the blog has been in a state of torpor. And why is that? I know why there haven’t been any blogs recently, but why does cycling seem to cease to exist once the whether gets cold (I’m speaking out of concern for my fellow Californians. If you live above the 40˚ line of latitude, your excuse holds more water, or should I say ice). None the less, cycling companies don’t make winter apparel for august.

This morning I rode to work, finally. I sold my “Lemon’d” and got a 2010 Tarmac Expert. The bike is awesome, however, at 6:15 this morning it was 28˚ outside when I left. I don’t care where you’re from, anything below freezing is cold. To give you an idea, I regularly have a pretty loud cassette mechanism – this morning, after about 5 minutes it went silent. Not sure why but I think it has something to do with the grease not being designed for such temperatures. All that to say, I still enjoyed myself. I’m going to get some new gloves and booties. There’s nothing fun about feeling like you’re going to get frost-bite. I’ll let you know which one’s I get and how they did soon enough. I’ll also be giving you a review on my new bike as well as it’s Ultegra 6700 gruppo. For now suffice it to say, they’re both awesome.

My point is this, if you can’t ride right now, maybe reading about my new stuff and riding pleasures will make you want to ride and help get you back on the bike. Cold shmold. With the right gear you’ll be toasty warm. Check back soon to find out what I’ve done to keep my ungodly fatless body warm and on the bike this winter. Until then, get a tune-up at your local shop (Arts if you live here) and get back on the bike for a lunch ride (it’s not so cold in the middle of the day).

Hammer On

Bradstone General

Here’s a little advice from Evan, our clothing buyer and avid triathlete, on how to get through the down-time of winter. Don’t forget, one of the the best ways to stay in shape through the off-season is to put in some maintenance miles on a trainer. This year’s crop of trainer’s from Blackburn and Cycle Ops look great, and will keep you in shape, ready to go when the roads thaw out. 

 ”I used to have trouble enjoying the off-season. As soon as my last race ended marking the conclusion of my season, I would start thinking about my next race, which would be several months away. I used to have to force myself to take time off the bike.

One unfortunate season that ended in burn-out sparked a monumental shift in my psyche. Now-a-days, I cherish the off-season and embrace it as a period of rest, recovery and flat-out laziness. I usually take two weeks after my last race of the year for complete rest. Those two weeks usually fly by as I reflect on my season and map out some goals for next year. After those two weeks, I begin the gradual process of easing my way back into training mode.

I’ll ride slow with friends with no set route or destination. I try to ignore my watch and cyclometer and just enjoy being active. This is the phase I’m in right now, and it’s interesting to note the psychological and physiological changes that occur.

My appetite is about a fourth of what it was when I was training 15-20 hours a week. I used to bring grocery bags full of food to work with me because I would constantly graze and snack to appease my incessant appetite. Now, I occasionally skip lunch without even realizing it. The irony is that since I stopped training with the unwavering vigor necessary to race at an elite level, I have actually lost weight.

Eventually, I will gain it back. Right around Thanksgiving, I’ll start to notice a little belly forming where there used to be a chiseled six-pack. I will compete with my brother in our annual contest of who can gain the most weight on Thanksgiving Day. He’s won the last three years in a row, with an unbreakable record of over five pounds in a five-hour period. The most amazing part about it is that he’s a vegetarian!

My advice for anyone struggling with the off-season blues is to pick up a new sport. Whether it’s competitive eating with siblings, cyclo-cross, or adventure racing, having a sport to fuel your athletic ambitions is always positive. If you have already mastered the art of the off-season, I say congratulations. The rest you get now will help when you start piling on the miles to build a strong base for your season.

Don’t be so focused on racing that you lose sight of why you do it in the first place – to have fun. Enjoy some rest, gain some weight, and you’ll come back next year stronger and more focused than ever.”

-Evan

Luke General

One of the perks here at Art’s Cyclery is the opportunity to ride the latest and greatest, and I’ve recently been sampling a Crank Brothers Iodine wheelset. The Iodine is designated as Crank Brothers “all-mountain” wheelset, which means its should be able to handle everything from climbing relatively easily to railing through rock gardens to jumps and drops with decent transitions. All-mountain does not mean downhill-race style terrain, or freeride-huckfest-to-flat riding, but simply aggressive riding on aggressive terrain.

How do they ride? I was impressed with the Iodine’s all the way around. They’re fairly light for what they are, weighing 2040 grams (with skewers and dirt)—pretty close to CB’s claimed weight of 1903 grams, and are pretty stiff as well. In fact, I couldn’t tell much of a difference in stiffness between the Iodine’s and my usual wheelset—Mavic 823 32-hole rims on Chris King Hubs—and yet the Iodine’s weigh over a pound less. Plus, the Crank Brother’s hubs are right up there with the King’s in terms of near-instant engagement. I felt the weight loss on my first climb, finally keeping up with my fellow lunch-rider on our usual trail. One area the Iodine’s can’t keep up with the 823′s is in robustness—the Iodine’s are softer, and I collected a few dings in terrain that the 823′s eat for breakfast, but then, my 823 wheelset is a pound heavier. 

The real reason I liked these wheels is because… Well… They’re orange. Bright, beautiful, anodized orange. The Iodine’s make any bike look like a factory ride, and if you get your bike stolen, there’s no way your friends won’t notice those wheels rolling around the neighborhood!

The Iodine’s work well for the trails we have in San Luis Obispo; climbclimbclimb, then a high-speed, rocky, and often loose descent. If you can pick lines well and don’t make your bike make up for too much of your inadequacies as a rider, these wheels will not disappoint you, and provide years of service. If, however, you are a wheel-killer, you’ll probably get a year or so out of these wheels if you ride challenging terrain and don’t hold back.

Luke Gear, General, Product Reviews

Former Art’s Cyclery employee and current World Cup DH racer Brad Benedict said it best, “A clean bike is a happy bike…” If your bike is happy, then you will be happy also. Keeping your bike clean has several benefits; your parts last longer, your bike runs better, you’re more motivated to ride if you have a clean, mean machine leaning against the wall, and you’re more likely to notice and replace worn out parts before they cause problems. Keeping your bike clean is easy and lets your bike know you love it and appreciate all it does for you. Cleaning your bike is easy and fun, and although all you need is water, soap and a couple of towels, you’ll get better results with a few key items and techniques.

To make cleaning your bike as easy and effective as possible, put your bike in some kind of holder, like an Ultimate repair stand, or this Park PRS-20 repair stand, which is what you’ll find most pro team mechanic’s using. Once your bike is in a repair stand, it’s time to clean the drive train. The easiest and fastest way to do this is by using a chain cleaning machine, like the Park CG-2 Cyclone Chain Cleaner  or the Pedro’s Chain Machine.  Simply remove the top of the chain cleaner, fill it with bio-degradable solvent (Park and Pedro’s both make excellent solvent’s), and close the chain machine (after shifting your bike to the small cog/big chainring) so that the chain runs through it. Turn your cranks backward for a couple of minutes and you’re left with a sparkling chain that will run smoother, quieter, shift better, and last longer. Be sure to properly dispose of the used solvent. After cleaning the chain, remove the bikes wheels and scrub down the cassette and crankset with a stiff-bristled brush. Using a spray-on metal cleaner like White Lightening Clean Streak or Simple Green Foaming Degreaser will make this immensely easier, but be careful about where the over-spray goes. 

Since the wheels are off the bike, you might as well clean those now. Spray them down with water and a gentle soap (dish-washing detergent is good) or a specific cleaner, like one of these. Scrub the tires, hubs and rims with a brush, and spray down with a very gentle stream of water—if your hose has a “mist” setting use that. Go back and clean the rims braking surface, (if you are using rim-brakes) or the disc rotor with rubbing alcohol or a cleaner that doesn’t leave a residue when it dries. It’s also not a bad idea to gently sand those surfaces down a few times per year. Leave the wheels off as it makes cleaning hard-to-reach areas on your bike easier.

Now move on to the frame. If your bike is exceptionally dirty, you might want to gently spray it down with water first (use the “mist” setting), and never aim the water directly at any bearings. So, start with a spray under the seat, and spray down the entire bike with the same cleaner you used on the wheels. Use a soft brush or large sponge to scrub the dirt off the frame and all the components. Make sure you get around the bottom bracket junction, behind brake calipers, and all suspension pivots. Once you’re satisfied you’ve scrubbed everything, gently rinse the bike down and dry it with a soft towel. If you really want to show your bike some love, spray it down with some Pedro’s Bike Lust. 

For all you stylists with white bar tape out there, use Windex and a clean rag to keep it looking new. 

Now it’s time for a little maintenance. It’s likely that soap or cleaner touch your brake pads, and since they probably need to be cleaned anyway, now is as good a time as any. If you’re cleaning a road bike or a mountain bike with rim brakes, this is easy; simply sand down the surface of each pad that contacts the rim until the “glaze” is gone and the surface looks new and sticky again. Usually just several seconds of sanding does the trick. Disc brakes are a little trickier, in that you must remove the brake pads to sand their surface down. Make sure you keep track of the pads orientation when you remove them, and watch for small parts that may fall out as well. I will put a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface and then rub the pad’s braking surface back and forth a few times until it looks clean. Replace the pads and you’re almost done.

Check your bike for damage, looking for cracks in the welds or carbon fiber, and contact your bike shop if you discover anything. Do Not ride a bike that has a cracked frame!  

That’s it. Put the wheels back on and go out and get that thing dirty!

Luke Gear, General, Technique

Further proof that Art’s Cyclery permeates the world of cycling can be found in 2010 Specialized bicycle catalogs. Art’s very own Matt Gutowski, who makes sure our products are responsibly accounted for so we can then ship them to you, is well-represented throughout Specialized’s bike guides. Matt’s photography appears in the Specialized shop catalog for the Allez line, and in a two-page spread in the mountain bike catalog showcasing the Rockhopper line. Art’s has talent. Art’s has influence. Art’s has it all. Art’s is here for you!

Shooters trail in SLO. Original image used for Rockhopper line in Specialized's 2010 MTB book. Photo Matt Gutowski

Luke General, Mountain

First, I owe you all an apology. Our blogging over the past couple of weeks has been pitiful, but there is a reason. First, I’ve been out taking care of my new baby girl (our first), and second, Brad took a Hawaiian vacation. We’re back now, and ready to make up for lost time. But first, a word of caution to you all.

My wife and I have worked out a program where one of us rides the trail  and the other one walks the trail with the baby; that way we both get out of the house, get some exercise, and get some baby time. Well, when we returned from one of our walk/ride adventures, the baby needed some serious cleaning, if you know what I mean. Leaving my bike on the car rack, I quickly took  her into the house for a cleansing and clothing change, expecting to take my bike in after. 10 minutes later when I walked back outside to retrieve my bike, all I saw was an empty rack… Now, I’ve left my bike racked up in my driveway many times before, once even leaving it out over night by mistake, only to find it shivering, but still there, the next morning, so this was a complete shock. Anyway, after driving around looking for it, alerting all the local bike shops, neighborhood kids, and filing a police report, I tried to think positive and pick out the parts for my new ride.

This story has a happy ending, in that a friend of a friend found my bike ditched in a field next to his house, only one street over from mine. A couple of phone calls reunited me with my Bionicon Edison, and I didn’t even miss my turn in the walk/ride rotation with my wife!

The moral of the story is, of course, never leave your bike unattended, which we all know is sometimes impossible. When you purchase a rack, make sure you go with a reputable company like Thule, who offers a quality product and excellent security systems for their racks. And finally, when wondering if it’s OK to leave your bike out-of-sight and unlocked, even for a few minutes, ask yourself if you can afford to replace it.

Luke General

Thanks to everyone who entered Art’s Cyclery’s Bionicon Edison giveaway contest, and congratulations to our winner… Mark Bruxelles of Delaware is the lucky guy who will soon be pedaling his new Bionicon Edison around the awesome trails of White Clay Creek. The Edison is perfect for both the steep climbs and technical downhills found in the White Clay Creek zone, thanks to it’s infinitely adjustable end-to-end geometry. Head tube angles can be changed anywhere from 72º for uphill efforts, and slacked-out to 67º for critical rocky-sections and trail obstacles found in White Clay Creek, all at the push of a button. 

Don’t worry, if you missed out on the drawing, we still have plenty of Bionicon’s in stock. Give us a call and we’ll get one shipped out to you ASAP.

Luke General, Mountain